Available thesis topics

Students interested in topics related to usable security and privacy have the opportunity to do their master theses / bachelor theses / practical research project (Einzelpraktikum) at the Research Institute CODE (Bundeswehr University Munich). More information on the research group on Usable Security and Privacy Group can be found on our website.

We offer a large variety of topics, including but not limited to:

• Tangible Security/Privacy Mechanisms (Ansprechpartner: Sarah Delgado)
• Human Behavior and Physiological Responses in Security Critical Situations (Ansprechpartner: Felix Dietz)
• Behavioral Biometrics (Ansprechpartner: Lukas Mecke)
• Usable Security in Smart Homes (Ansprechpartner: Sarah Prange)
• Novel Security Mechanisms based on Gaze (Ansprechpartner: Yasmeen Abdrabou)
• Novel Blockchain User Interfaces (Ansprechpartner: Michael Froehlich)
• Physiologicacl Security (Ansprechpartner: Mariam Hassib)
• Social Engineering
• Virtual Reality as Research Methodology (Ansprechpartner: Rivu Radiah)

A list of current topics is available on our website.

If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch with the respective contact person.

Details

Liebe Studieninteressierte,

im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes untersuchen wir das Interaktionsverhalten mit Smartphones. Dazu suchen wir Teilnehmer für eine kurze Online-Studie (Bearbeitungsdauer: 5 Minuten).

Um an der Studie teilzunehmen, rufen Sie bitte den folgenden Link mit ihrem Smartphone auf:
Online Studie zu Smartphone Interaktion.

Bei Rückfragen wenden Sie sich bitte an Kai Lebruschka.

Besten Dank für die Teilnahme!

Details

Problem Statement

Usable security for virtual and augmented reality systems (VR/AR) is an area that is relatively underexplored. This thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of authentication mechanisms for VR/AR, while considering the usability and security aspects, specifically potential attacks.

Tasks

• Get familiar with VR/AR hardware and software
• Get familiar with authentication techniques
• Find and study related literature
• Develop\reuse software tracking the body motion and model it in VR
• Design a user study
• Conduct a user study
• Do a statistical evaluation
• Write all down in a thesis

Preferred (but not necessary) qualification

• Knowledge in the area of human computer interaction
• Independent thinking and creative problem solving
• Experience in programming with Unity a plus

Details

Problem Statement

Our homes are currently equipped with ubiquitous computing services, be it our smart phones, smart TVs, Alex, or lifelogging devices. The availability of these devices offers novel opportunities for user authentication, as well as raises privacy concerns and potential novel security attacks. This thesis, aims to explore the raised opportunities and challenges from the availability of smart devices in our daily vicinity.

Tasks

• Get familiar with VR/AR hardware and software
• Get familiar with authentication techniques
• Find and study related literature
• Develop / reuse software tracking the body motion and model it in VR
• Design a user study
• Conduct a user study
• Do a statistical evaluation
• Write all down in a thesis

Preferred (but not necessary) qualification

• Knowledge in the area of human computer interaction
• Independent thinking and creative problem solving
• Experience in programming with Unity a plus

Details

Description

Shoulder surfing refers to situations where a person observes another person's private interactions with technology (e.g., private messages on a smartphone, or personal identification numbers on ATMs). In this thesis, we will investigate how VR can be used as a platform to study shoulder surfing. In this context, we will explore the effect of audio feedback on behavior in VR, covering both the attacker and the victim.

The objective of this thesis is to obtain a thorough understanding of how audio feedback in Virtual Reality affects human behaviour in the context of shoulder surfing. The student is required to review previous work on shoulder surfing and particularly its prior applications in VR. The thesis requires the design and implementation of a user study in VR.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Review of relevant research questions in the application area
• Developing and setting up a virtual study environment
• Running a user study in VR
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Interest in performing user studies and experiments
• Interest in VR
• Good programming skills
• Nice to have: experience with 3D modeling and development with Unity

Details

Details

In this Master Thesis you will develop novel solutions to make use of unstructured UI tree data yielded form Android Smartphones. Such data could be used in future adaptive systems to learn what the user is aiming for, to make more accurate and concrete predictions. Please check the PDF announcement on my webspace: Master Thesis: Deep Activity Tracking on Android Smartphones
23.02.2022

Details

Description

Biocybernetic adaptation is a form of physiological computing where real-time physiological data from the brain and the body can be used as an input to adapt the user interface. In this way, from the physiological data, we can infer the user’s state and design implicit interactions in VR to change the scene to support certain goals. This thesis aims the develop and evaluate an adaptive VR environment designed to maximize users' performance by exploiting changes in real-time electroencephalography (EEG) to adjust the level of visual complexity. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the input EEG measures underpinning the loop; (2) implementation of a working VR prototype; and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate the sensitivity of EEG power in the (frontal) theta and (parietal) alpha bands to adapt levels of visual complexity.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EEG
• Collect and analyze EEG, EDA, and ECG data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity and/or C#
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, MNE).

References

• Biocybernetics Loops and Physiological Computing
• Development of an Adaptive Game using EEG frequencies

Details

Description

Research from cognitive science and computerized displays of simple stimuli has shown how perceptual load is a critical factor for modulating distraction. Perceptual load is the amount of information involved in processing task stimuli. According to Lavie (1995), our attentional resources are limited and mainly directed towards task-relevant goals, but we might be more prone to distractors if we have cognitive spare resources. Previous research showed that human faces have bigger distracting power than non-face objects. This project aims to assess the distracting potential distracting effect of human avatars in a social VR scenario. We aim to transfer of traditional paradigms that assess attention and distraction to immersive VR. Lastly, we adapt the target-distractor recognizability to evaluate if a physiologically-adaptive system that optimizes for perceptual load can support task performance. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the physiological loop (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EEG and/or EDA
• Collect and analyze electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity and/or C#
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit, MNE).

References

• Perceptual Load of faces
• Perceptual load and task engagement
• Evaluating perceptual load in VR

Details

Description

Physiological computing is a multidisciplinary research field in HCI wherein the interaction depends on measuring and responding to the user's physiological activity in real-time (Fairclough, 2009). Physiological computing allows for implicit interaction; by monitoring the physiological signals of the user, the computer can infer, e.g., if the task demands are either too challenging or easy, and either adapt the difficulty level or when users are getting distracted from the task, the system could give them a notification. Measuring the psychological state of the user creates intriguing possibilities for Social VR scenarios as we can either adapt the number of displayed avatars, their form or even their proxemic distance. This thesis aims the develop an adaptive Social VR environment designed to support users' performance when engaged in a cognitive task using a measure of physiological state (electrodermal activity: EDA) as input for adaptation. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the physiological loop (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EDA
• Collect and analyze EEG, electrodermal activity (EDA) and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit).

References

• Biocybernetics Loops and Physiological Computing
• Adapting task complexity of a Social VR environment based on skin conductance

Details

Imagine Bob's office is connected via a (quantum-)encrypted connection to a server. How could Bob access this server from his home office if he does not have the necessary hardware at home? Well, he could get keys in his office and save them on his personal key-safe token. He could subsequently use the token at home and connect to the server.

The topic of offline distribution of cryptographic keys is interesting for researchers and practitioners alike, even outside the QKD context. Hence, exemplary open questions include: Which use cases for offline key distribution exist? How could the key-safe token look like (design, usability and security)? Is there a possibility to detect unauthorized access to the token?

Details

Description

This projects purpose is to investigate in building a full body tracking system based on self-made trackers which are usable by the HTC VIVE and its Lighthouses. We want to compare the original HTC VIVE tracker with a varying amount of self-made trackers in order to use it for VR sport analysis.

Tasks

• Building a set of at least 10 tracker based on the enclosed literature
• Implementation of an application for testing purposes
• Compare the existing Tracker with the self-made tracker in terms of usability for VR sport analysis

Preferred qualification

• Experience in hardware and software prototyping
• Experience in C# programming for Unity 3D
• Interest in performing experiments
• Interest in performance enhancement in sports

Suggested Reading

• The HiveTrackers will serve as the foundation for the self-made trackers Tracker foundations
• This project can help to create suitable sensors Sensor foundations

Details

Gaze-based head gestures are a hands-free interaction technique using the occulo-vestibular reflex. A bachelor thesis showed already that this interaction technique works for checking checkboxes and answering dialogs.
This thesis should research whether advanced interaction, such as drag & drop operations, using scrollbars and manipulation of 3D objects, is possible with gaze-based head gestures.

Tasks

• Get familiar with hardware and software
• Find and study related literature
• Develop software supporting the interaction method
• Design a user study
• Conduct a user study
• Do a statistical evaluation
• Write all down in a thesis

Details

Description

In this project, we would like to explore how VR can be used to enhance Dance experiences. From a performer perspective, the VR setting may be used to further visualize movements for example. From the observer perspective, it would be interesting to see whether these enhancements are viewed simply on a digital screen or through an HMD as well. Can it happen synchronously or only one-after-the-other?

The aim of this thesis is to explore this topic.

Tasks

• Review of related work on performer/observer interactions in digitally enhanced social viewing/entertainment/public art viewing (e.g. festival, theater) situations
• Creating an application that tracks fully body movements of VR user
• Enhancing dance movements with a design space of visualizations
• Evaluating the viewing experience from a performer and observer perspective in a small study
• Analyze the data collected from the studies and build valid conclusions

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Interest in performing user studies and experiments
• Interest in performing arts
• Interest in VR
• Good experience with c# 3D authoring tools (e.g.,Unity)

Details

Depression is highly prevalent in society, with approximately 280 million people experiencing the illness worldwide. Especially in recurrent cases, depression can be a serious health condition that impacts all aspects of a person’s life. More than 50% of people who have one depressive episode will have another, and the rate of recurrence increases with successive episodes. Therapists can provide effective relief and treatment for depression and other mental disorders, but there is a limit to how often a therapist can be visited. As symptoms improve, the frequency of appointments typically decreases, leading to long gaps where an individual may relapse. In this project, we aim to investigate how technology can be used to reduce recurrence by providing an avenue for patients and therapists to track their progress over time after initial therapy has concluded. In particular, we want to explore which information to communicate, how to communicate the data, and how these two factors are different for users and therapists.

You will:

• Conduct interviews with therapists (and potential users)
• Host Focus Groups
• Create Customer Journeys
• Develop and evaluate design artifacts

You need:

• Prior experience in interface / interaction / UX / etc. design processes
• Experience conducting interviews & user studies is an asset
• Experience creating design artifacts using prototyping software
• Strong communication skills in english

Details

We want to explore user experiences of social media content turned into location-based and distributed AR. This means that you prepare an AR interface that presents social media content in different ways and aggregated forms.

Tasks:

• AR Programming
• Mobile Application Programming
• Field Study
• Review and test your prototype.

Requirements:

• Basic knowledge about AR and mobile app programming.

Suggested Reading:

• Chidambaram et al. "rocessAR: An Augmented Reality-Based Tool to Create in-Situ Procedural 2D/3D AR Instructions." 2021.
• Babajide Osatuyi "Information sharing on social media sites."2013.
• Wang et al. "DistanciAR: Authoring Site-Specific Augmented Reality Experiences for Remote Environments." 2021.

Details

Description

In this thesis project, we will investigate how an AI-system learns characteristics about the user through interaction patterns and user reactions. The final goal is a system in a specific domain, that adapts to the user based on their characteristics.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work in the research area of user profiling, interaction design and related psychology topics
• Find (based on an interesting usecase) one user characteristic, which is possible to detect based on interaction patterns or user reactions
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects

Contact

Email: klingner ät fortiss.org

Details

Description

How to design virtual reality experiences and user analytic methods for user profiling in VR?

In this thesis, we will investigate how virtual reality (VR) experiences can be designed to trigger user reactions, that could give us hints about specific user characteristics. Additionally we explore new methods of user profiling in VR.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work in the research area of user profiling, emotion induction methods and Virtual Reality
• Find (based on an interesting usecase) one user characteristic, which is possible to detect based on user reactions from VR experiences.
• Develop based on your findings a concept of reliable inducing the desired user reaction
• Optimal: Develop new user analytics methods for user profile generation
• Implement your concept in Unreal Engine 4 or Unity3D and VR HMD
• Conduct a user study to test your concept and verify the performance
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest in Virtual Reality Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming, preferred C#/C++
• Experience working with 3D game engines, Unity3D or Unreal Engine 4

Contact

Email: klingner ät fortiss.org

Details

Inhalte

Das bayerische Landesforschungsinstitut fortiss und IBM werden im Rahmen des IBM fortiss Center forAI das Thema Stress-Management für sicherheitskritische Anwendungen erforschen. Dafuür wird einKonzept entwickelt, um Stress bei Einsatzkräften der Feuerwehr zu überwachen und managen. Die Ideen werden prototypisch umgesetzt und präsentiert. Die Workshops und Gespräche während desPraktika können entweder in englischer oder deutscher Sprache gehalten werden.

Bewerbung

Beschreiben Sie kurz Ihre Motivation, relevante Fachkenntnisse, beispielsweise aus früheren Kursen,Jobs und anderen Projekten, die Ihre Fähigkeiten in einem oder mehreren der folgenden Bereichedemonstrieren: Programmierung, Benutzererfahrung, Nutzerstudien, Prototyping.
Senden Sie es anyuanting.liu ät fortiss.org

Details

Description

In this project, the student will extend a previous project called GravitySpot (link; video; talk). GravitySpot is a system that guides users to specific spots in front of large interactive displays using cues that implicitly guide users. For example, in case of a display with which users can interact via mid-air gestures, a perfect position to guide users to could be 2-3 meters away from the display, but in case of interaction via eye gaze, this position could be 30-60cm away from the eye tracking device. GravitySpot guides users by showing them on-screen cues that implicitly guide people to the correct position.

In this project, we aim to implement GravitySpot 2.0, which guides multiple users in front of large displays to one or more optimal interaction positions. We attempted to implement GravitySpot 2.0 before. We started by following the same approach adopted in the first version i.e. showing on-screen cues to guide each user in a different way. However, we quickly realized that a prerequisite is to first make sure the user knows which on-screen cue they should follow. This led us to question how users identify themselves on public displays. In our investigation of this problem, we published this work (link; video).

Tasks

• Build on the two previous projects to implement and evaluate GravitySpot 2.0. Taking some points into consideration e.g. the kinds of situations GravitySpot 2.0 should cover.
• Review of previous work on interaction with public displays is necessary.
• Conducting user studies and evaluating the data
• Handling of depth imaging data from a motion sensor (e.g. Kinect)

Requirements

• Good programming skills
• Interest in conducting user studies

Details

After an initial induction into existing marker technologies and conducive 3D printed objects, the goal is to design and build new a machine learning (ML) pipeline to detect conductive markers. Therefore the prototyping of physical markers is required, these will be used to record capacitive tangible footprints using the screen of a large capacitive screen as ML ground truth data. Based on that a model will be trained to distinguish and classify capacitive markers on touchscreens using a new ML classifier.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Building capactive marker
• Recoridng data for the training
• Train a ML model using TensorFlow
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Good knowledge of data processing
• Good knowledge of machine learning

References

• Super-Resolution Capacitive Touchscreens
• 3D Hand Pose Estimation on Conventional Capacitive Touchscreens Submission

Details

The goal of this work is to get an overview of the vast variety of selection methods in smart environments, mixed reality, and VR. Through a literature review, the first step is to select a handful of selected methods. Therefore, in the next step, these interactions need to be implemented, to allow them to be compared in a lab study. Here, the aim is to compare these technologies with respect to measurements such as accuracy, speed, immersion, presence, and their effect on the embodiment.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Investigate different selection methods for VR focusing on e.g., controller vs. controller less, absolute vs. relative, feedback vs. no feedback
• Implement the study application
• Conduct the user study
• Study data analyse and propose design guidelines
• Record video up to 5min long explaining the thesis
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Knowledge of human tracking techqniues (e.g., OptiTrack)
• Good knowledge of running studies
• Good knowledge of implementation most likely using Unity

References

• The Effect of Offset Correction and Cursor on Mid-Air Pointing in Real and Virtual Environments
• Modeling Distant Pointing for Compensating Systematic Displacements
• Up to the Finger Tip: The Effect of Avatars on Mid-Air Pointing Accuracy in Virtual Reality
• EyePointing: A Gaze-Based Selection Technique
• Improving Humans’ Ability to Interpret Deictic Gestures in Virtual Reality

Details

With the increasing proliferation of augmented reality glasses (e.g. Hololens), we are getting closer to the vision of truly mobile interaction in a digitally augmented physical world. As a consequence, a major part of the interaction with such devices will happen on the go. This establishes a need for interaction and visualization techniques that support the user in highly mobile situations. In this thesis, we will prototype and evaluate such interaction and visualization techniques to better support users while interacting on the go.

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts
• Prototypical implementation
• Design and conduct a user study

Requirements:

• Good programming skills (C#, Unity is a plus)

Details

Mixed reality describes a continuum between physical reality and complete digitality (i.e., virtual reality). Both, reality and digitality, offer inherent advantages and disadvantages depending on the use case. For example, a higher degree of digitality causes a loss of connection to the real world and, on the other hand, a higher degree of reality decreases the immersiveness of the experience.In this thesis, we will investigate how the positive and negative factors of reality and digitality affect different usage scenarios. Furthermore, we want to investigate how users can move on this continuum, i.e., how they can control the amount of digitality and reality.

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts
• Prototypical implementation
• Design and conduct a user study

Requirements:

• Good programming skills (C#, Unity is a plus)

Details

Description

Virtual Reality is increasingly being used as a research tool. It is particularly useful in situations, where users should not be put at risk, for example, when testing a novel automotive user interface; or where running a study in the real world is a lot of effort.

At the same time, affective user interfaces, that respond to or evoke certain emotions are becoming increasingly popular. However, it is unclear yet how well emotion elicitation works for different tasks commonly done in virtual reality.

The objective of this thesis is to obtain a thorough understanding the lasting effects of emotions in humans during performing tasks in VR. We look into different tasks in VR, different emotion elicitation methods and how long the emotions last. The thesis requires the design and implementation of a user study to understand how task performance is affected due to emotions in VR. In addition, this work also explores how negative mood elicitation affects task performance.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Design and development of a prototype
• Evaluation of the prototype and comparison to previous work

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Interest in performing user studies and experiments
• Interest in VR
• Experience with C# 3D authoring tools (e.g.,Unity) is preferred

Details

Generative music systems are becoming more and more relevant nowadays. In the near future Artificial Intelligences will become evenly equal partners in music making scenarios. Therefore we have to find ways to interact with systems that are able to make their own decisions and have their own creative mind. Established communication with human musicians are eye-contact, gestures, verbal expressions.How can we communicate with digital musicians, how can they communicate with humans?

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts for the handling of AI/generative systems in a musical context.
• Implementation of a functional prototype that demonstrates the basic concept.
• Conducting a study with students.

Requirements:

• Interest and experience in music theory.
• Experience in programming and hardware-prototyping.
• Ambition to delve into hardware and software.

Suggested Reading:

• Yamaha Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transforms a Dancer into a Pianist
• Mateas, M. (2001). Expressive AI: A hybrid art and science practice. Leonardo, 34(2), 147-153.
• De Mantaras, R. L., & Arcos, J. L. (2002). AI and music: From composition to expressive performance. AI magazine, 23(3), 43.
• Francois, A. R., Chew, E., & Thurmond, D. (2007, June). Visual feedback in performer-machine interaction for musical improvisation. In Proceedings of the 7th international conference on New interfaces for musical expression (pp. 277-280). ACM.

Details

User interfaces facilitate interaction with digital content. Concepts such as "Undo" make it possible to reverse actions that did not have the desired effect. But what would interfaces and the corresponding interactions look like if irreversible actions were central components of interaction design? In this thesis a design exploration should be performed that focusses on materials like paper which affordances lead to actions such as tearing, crumpling, folding, punching holes, etc.. How can familiar concepts such as punch cards or origami help to design intelligible interaction metaphors, that create commitment to the actions we as users perform with technology? What impact will such concepts have on prospective actions?

Tasks:

• Concept Development.
• Design Experimentations.
• Prototyping.
• Evaluation in form of a User Study.

Requirements:

• Prototyping Experience.
• Interest in Design and UX Design.

Suggested Reading:

• Zimmerman, John, Jodi Forlizzi, and Shelley Evenson. "Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI." Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems. ACM, 2007.
• Auger, James. "Speculative design: crafting the speculation." Digital Creativity 24.1 (2013): 11-35.
• Cox, Anna L., et al. "Design frictions for mindful interactions: The case for microboundaries." Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2016.

Details

Group behavior visualization in virtual communication.
Details

Spatial behavior as non-verbal channel in virtual communication.
For detailed information have a look at » my website
Details

Description

Developing an Android app for predicting personality traits via smartphone usage

In the PhoneStudy project, an interdisciplinary team consisting of psychologists, statisticians, and computer scientists develop an Android app, which tracks and logs the user’s smartphone behaviour to predict personality traits. For example, we track the number of users’ calls, sms, and app usage, which might predict how extraverted the user is. The app will be distributed among participants in spring 2018, which will then use the app for several months. There are several tasks for media informatics students in this project (cf. below), from which you can choose. Please contact me when you are interested in the project and will give you more details.

Tasks

You can choose between different tasks:

• Configuring and working on the server, its scalability and stability, as well as the data base (MariaDB)
• Working on the internal web based front end of the server, which depicts the current status of participants and logged data
• Further develop the app: integrating new features and fixing current bug
• Quality management: Developing automatic testing scripts

Minimum requirements

• Interested in interdisciplinary projects
• High communication skills, especially willing to communicate interdisciplinary
• Able to work independently
• Previous experience with server configuration, (Android) app development, web development, data bases (depending on the chosen task)
• High frustration tolerance

Details